As an instructor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Texas Christian University, I naturally have a big interest in teaching at the undergraduate level, but I am also interested in discussions about curriculum at the K-12 level. Below you'll find a collection of resources used at other institutions for the teaching of Astronomy. For each resource, there is a short description, a credit and a link to the HTML version of that resource (sometimes located on another web server at another institution). Please feel free to make use of all of the material on this page. I'm adding new things as fast as I receive them, and I actively solicit new items. Please contact me if you have any comments or anything you would like to contribute.

Table of Contents

Readings

Homeworks and Labs

Exams

Syllabi and Study Guides

Statements of Philosophy

Readings

The readings here are posted on the Web without permission from the authors for redistribution. If you intend to distribute any of these to your class, I suggest you contact the original authors or publishers.

"Cargo Cult Science" by Richard Feynman

A great reading about science and integrity. I always start off every semester with a discussion of this article.

"Philosophy and the Scientific Method" by Ronald C. Pine

A rather long but crucially relevant reading on science and certainty. Asks and answers such questions as "Is science worthwhile?" and "How do we know something is true?" The book it is from ("Science and the Human Prospect") is out of print but still available through booksellers such as Amazon.

Helpful definition: EPISTEMOLOGY - The branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge, its presuppositions and foundations, and its extent and validity.

Biology references (from Dr. B. Nicotri)

This is a series of short articles and books that are recommended as background readings for both teachers and students learning about the origin and evolution of life on Earth.

Astronomy references (from Dr. Doug Ingram)

This is a list of articles from Scientific American (et al) considered to be suitable for short paper assignments (article reports) during the semester. Article dates are from 1990-present (some older "classic" articles are also referenced).

K-12 Science Education Essay (from Dr. Doug Ingram) ("What is science?")

This essay attempts to answer the question posed in the title.

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Homeworks and Labs

Motion of the Moon (from Dr. Doug Ingram)

This homework presents a series of basic and detailed observations of the Moon during one orbit. It then asks a series of questions about the data and asks the student to explain why one model fits the data and not another. It also asks some more speculative questions on properties of the lunar orbit to provoke critical thought (the issues aren't covered in the lecture and are covered only briefly in the book).

Motion of the Moon Supplement (from Dr. Doug Ingram)

This is a supplement for the instructor/TA. It describes a pre- and post- assignment demonstration of the principles of this homework using the Voyager software and a display screen. It helps a great deal if Voyager is intended to be used heavily in the course or for data collection on any of the assignments.

Astronomy Homework #2 (The Sun and the Seasons) (LaTeX) or (Postscript)

This homework covers the motion of the Sun in the sky over the course of the year from different places in the Earth. This is used to lead to a discussion on the origin of the seasons and other effects, such as lengthening shadows and changing day lengths.

Astronomy Homework #3 (Stars) (LaTeX) or (Postscript)

This homework is a semi-number-crunching assignment that tests student comprehension and skill with scientific notation. The purpose of the homework is not so much to test math skills as to give students an idea of the order of magnitude of the concepts involved with stars. Also, students are given some qualitative questions to check understanding along with the quantitative questions.

Astronomy Homework #4 (Hubble's Law) (LaTeX) or (Postscript)

This homework asks the question ``Is the Universe really expanding?'' It contains a set of data on 100 galaxies, from which the students select a sample for a Hubble diagram. Bias and selection effects are discussed in the questions, and the student actually comes up with his or her own value of H plus error bars (quantitative errors derived in a visual way).

Astronomy Homework #5 (Scale of the Solar System) (LaTeX) or (Postscript)

This homework leads students through the creation of their own scale models of the solar system.

Astronomy Homework #6

A very tongue-in-cheek review of the chemical evolution of the Universe and the solar system following Peppy the proton. Watch your gag reflex reading through this one.

Astronomy Skylab Introduction (LaTeX) or (Postscript)

This four page handout describes the purpose and procedure for the quarterly skylab assignment. Students get to choose one of seven different projects or come up with one on their own. This handout contains a long discussion on errors that is largely credited to William Wedemeyer, a former Physics grad student at the University of Texas at Austin (he taught my Quantum lab when I was an undergrad there).

Astronomy Skylab #1 (Meteors) (LaTeX) or (Postscript)

This lab involves getting students out of the city to observe meteors and answer questions about the nature of meteor showers.

Astronomy Skylab #2 (Sidereal Day) (LaTeX) or (Postscript)

This lab has students making precise stellar occulatation measurements and a series of nights in order to determine the difference between the siderial and solar day. It asks several questions to help students understand the reasons behind the difference.

Astronomy Skylab #3 (Solar Motion) (LaTeX) or (Postscript)

In this lab, students use a gnomon to track the motion of the Sun over the course of a day. It asks questions about true noon vs. local noon and other aspects of the solar motion.

Astronomy Skylab #4 (Eratosthenes) (LaTeX) or (Postscript)

In this lab, students recreate Eratosthenes' famous experiment, using the altitude of the Sun at two different points North and South of one another in an attempt to find the circumference of the Earth. As with some of the other lab, the questions lead the student through a semi-formal derivation of the actual errors in their experiment and help the student understand the data.

Astronomy Skylab #5 (Tracking Sunsets) (LaTeX) or (Postscript)

In this lab, students track the azimuth of the sunrise or sunset over several weeks. The questions lead the students through the reasons behind the motions they see but aren't as extensive as in other labs because the data gathering requires a lot of commitment.

Astronomy Skylab #6 (Circumstellar Motion) (LaTeX) or (Postscript)

In this lab, students use a simple quadrant (yardstick, protractor and a threaded weight) to measure changing elevations of patterns of stars over the course of the night. The lab also gives students a chance to learn constellations.

Astronomy Skylab #7 (Term Paper) (LaTeX) or (Postscript)

This lab gives students who don't have the time to collect data a chance to write a lengthy term paper. The extra work involved is intended as an encouragement for the students to do ``real'' skylabs.

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Exams

Astronomy 201 Multiple Choice Database

Collection of about 200 multiple choice (5 possibilities, usually) questions from past Astronomy 201 (SETI and Cosmology course at the University of Washington) courses. About 1/3 to 1/2 of these questions have been statistically rated for easiness and fairness from a collection of test results. Of course, the easiness and fairness of a given question is highly dependent upon how the course material is presented in the first place...

Astronomy 101 Mid-Term (Summer 1993)

Exam contains 15 short answer questions from a general survey course.

Astronomy 101 Final Exam (Summer 1993)

Exam contains 16 short answer questions from a general survey course.

Astronomy 101U Mid-Term (Autumn 1993)

Exam contains 12 short answer and 4 essay questions from a general survey course.

Astronomy 101U Final Exam (Autumn 1993)

Exam contains 18 short answer questions from a general survey course.

Astronomy 101U Mid-Term (Spring 1994)

Exam contains 14 short answer questions from a general survey course.

Astronomy 101U Final Exam (Spring 1994)

Exam contains 14 short answer questions from a general survey course.

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Syllabi and Study Guides

Astronomy 101 Syllabus: LaTeX or Postscript (Spring 1994)

This syllabus includes my course overview and explanation of my teaching style as well as a calender showing what topics I cover throughout the quarter and how much time I spend on each. Next time I teach, I'll probably only cover about half as much just as an experiment to see how effective it can be.

Astronomy 201 Study Outline (Winter 1991)

This is an outline of all topics covered in our 201 course for use by students as a study guide. Course taught by Woody Sullivan.

Astronomy 201 Study Outline (Summer 1992)

This is an outline of all topics covered in our 201 course for use by students as a study guide. Course taught by Jeff Brown. This is somewhat different from the Winter 1991 outline.

Astronomy 201 Study Guide (Winter 1993)

This file is similar to the 101 file, but 201 emphasizes Cosmology and life on Earth somewhat more, so the review questions are different.

Astronomy 101 Study Guide (Summer 1993)

This file is an example of what I typically hand out to my students at the end of a quarter as a means of review. Lots of good ideas for exam questions in here.

Astronomy 101u Study Guide (Spring 1994)

Another file of 90 review questions I used at the end of my night class of 101 (the general survey course).

Qual Outline (Summer 1992)

This is a huge outline of every single Astronomical topic that I studied when I passed the departmental qualifying exam in June 1992. I made hand-written notes a page or more long on each of the topics listed in this outline. Took forever, but it helped, and I passed!

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Teaching Experience and Philosophy

Teaching Experience Outline

From my math tutoring days at North Texas up to and including my experience as a TA and instructor of Astronomy courses at UW and Calculus courses associated with the Minority Student Engineering Program.

Teaching Philosophy

A general statement that connects what I do with why I do it. This isn't just here because I'm being egotistical or something... I'm trying to develop a ``teaching portfolio'' for future job searches, and this is part of it.